The Year Everything Changed at Once

Marcus is back from five weeks on the conference circuit, from Collective's Recharge to Intuit and ADP councils to Accounting Today's Firm Growth Forum, and he and Rachel unpack what it signals for firms. They cover the surge in roll-ups and private equity moving down market, the tension between staying autonomous and centralizing operations, the AI agents landing inside nearly every platform, and the QuickBooks sunsets and price increases hitting this summer. They close with a preview of Gather and a case for using the slow season to act on what you learn, not just collect more sessions.

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• (00:00) - Welcome to Who's Really the Boss
• (03:00) - San Diego With The Girls
• (06:21) - Why Attend These Rooms
• (07:50) - Firm Growth Awards
• (09:17) - M&A Market Breakdown
• (14:47) - Centralize Or Stay Decentralized
• (22:57) - Rebrands And Proprietary AI
• (25:05) - AI Agents And Token Costs
• (32:47) - Platform Shifts And Price Hikes
• (37:24) - Gather Event Preview
• (43:22) - Improvement Season Takeaways
• (45:22) - How To Get Involved

Creators and Guests

Host

Marcus Dillon, CPA

Host

Rachel Dillon

What is Who's Really the BOSS??

"Who's Really the BOSS?" highlights the joys and challenges of running a CPA firm with your spouse or family. From hiring and terminating to improving capacity, cash flow, and culture, our conversations cover leadership, operations, and current accounting industry challenges. Our mission is to strengthen families and accounting firms by helping listeners avoid the mistakes we have made, so they can lead and live happily ever after.

There may be errors in spelling, grammar, and accuracy in this machine-generated transcript.

Rachel Dillon: This is Who's really the boss. A podcast for accounting firm leaders who want to grow with intention and lead with purpose. I'm Rachel Dolan, and along with my husband, Marcus Dillon, we share real stories from our accounting firm, Practical firm growth strategies, and the tools you need to lead your clients, your team, and your life well. Welcome back to another episode [00:00:30] of Who's Really the Boss podcast.

Marcus Dillon: Hey, thanks for having me back.

Rachel Dillon: Well, we are recording this episode in the summer of 2026. And right after I will say May, I think may you traveled more. I don't than I can maybe ever remember outside of your first year in internship working with E, you traveled a lot. Then you were gone for like two weeks at a time. I would see you on the weekend whether you came [00:01:00] home or I went to wherever you were stationed. Um, and then two weeks again. And so that was a rough time. But I started having flashbacks this past May when you were gone for various reasons, but I think it'd be awesome to share a little update on what you were seeing and learning and talking about. Um, during that time you were away from home and the office.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. Um, it was a wild five [00:01:30] weeks. Um, started with right after tax season ended, uh, started with our collective, uh, recharge conference that was in Mexico where we had friends, uh, and leaders there. And that was fun. And then the very next week, uh, California for Intuit Council spent a whole week there. Uh, Intuit executives were in the room. Uh, just a critical inflection point for a lot of businesses in the technology space. So kind of felt, weird, like we were. We were solving the world's [00:02:00] problems. But by by no, by no means we were, um, then, uh, came home for the weekend, went to Nashville, uh, for adp's counsel. Um, and then that was only a couple days. Then the next week, uh, went to Katy. Uh, so I went back down to Katy and had some meetings there scheduled. Um, so just away from home. Right. And then the next week we were in San Diego for a conference. The first, the [00:02:30] firm growth forum, uh, that was put on by Accounting Today. And so part of that, that was a late addition. Um, it was, you said we.

Rachel Dillon: But name, name the people who actually attended. I actually, I went to recharge and then I was home for all of those weeks while you were gone. So who, who did you take with you for that?

Marcus Dillon: Uh, well, you know, just for the record, the invitation is always open if you want to travel. Um, I had things. I had a schedule. You're busier than I am. So [00:03:00] it's funny. Uh, I said we because I actually was fortunate enough to take our daughters on that trip. And so, uh, it was funny. We were. I had already invited, uh, Avery, who's the one that is a lot closer to us here in Fort Worth at TCU. And she, she, like hardcore denied me. She was like, why would I want to go to an accounting conference? And I'm like, it's in San Diego. Like, you can do whatever you want. She's like, no way. And so then Kinley comes home from Baylor, and so she's [00:03:30] there for a few few weeks before going on her study abroad. And we're all out, you know, trying out a new burger spot and, uh, the, an area of Fort Worth. And I asked Kinley, I'm like, hey, I'm going to San Diego on Monday. Do you want to come with me? And she's like, yeah, that sounds like fun.

Rachel Dillon: And so actually, she said, let me check the UV.

Marcus Dillon: Oh yeah.

Rachel Dillon: And then.

Marcus Dillon: Said.

Rachel Dillon: Okay, yes, that sounds like fun. The UV in San Diego is better than the UV in Fort Worth that week.

Marcus Dillon: So maybe explain that [00:04:00] to the people who don't know what like what what what? I guess young people are interested. Why are they interested in the UV index?

Rachel Dillon: Uh, so thank you, thank you, thank you. Tiktok. Um, now UV index and the weathermen and the weather ladies are the coolest people in the whole world because they know when they should go lay out, when they are optimizing the amount of time that they spend in the sun to get tanned. And this is spanning a [00:04:30] big age range of people who are now paying attention, like checking the UV every single day. Thanks to TikTok. So from, you know, early teens, probably up through anybody who spends time on TikTok is paying attention to the UV like never before.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. So so she said yes. Maybe because the UV. Maybe because it was San Diego, maybe because she just wanted to go on a trip with her dad. But either way, she said yes. And then Avery, [00:05:00] the younger one, had already told me no, got super angry. And I'm like, hey, the invitation is still open if you want to go. And then you know, your odd man out where it's like you can go to and, and so it just didn't work out, uh, that all four of us could go. But the two girls did tag along and they did have great, you know, sister time, which is awesome to see. Um, but then, you know, they got to, we got to go to Torrey Pines and do a hike there, uh, have dinner [00:05:30] at Torrey Pines clubhouse right there by the golf course, see the sunset, which is really cool. We've done that before. And then the next day went to A Padres Dodgers game. So that's that was awesome. Got great tickets on SeatGeek. Um, and then they laid out, they went shopping, you know, when I was in conference and talking to people. So, uh, but yeah, like that was that was kind of a late addition. Got to take a couple of kids with me. Um, and I know that those days are limited, uh, you know, with just where they're at stage of life. Sooner, [00:06:00] sooner than later, there will be significant others and, you know, other people in their lives that will either have to go with us and we'll have to pay for, uh, or accommodate or, um, you know, they'll just want to spend time with them. So highly recommend that if you can take people that you love, uh, on those trips with you if you're going to go.

Rachel Dillon: So yeah, so let's get into kind of what you saw, what things were highlighted [00:06:30] during those trips, things that we, uh, in the accounting profession need to be aware of and thinking about.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah, I would be happy to unpack that. And, you know, it's just my, uh, what I see and what, um, even, you know, with how I stay attuned to this. Um, I, I spend more time here, um, just because of my role both within DBA and collective, um, growth and opportunity on the DBA side, growth and opportunity on the collective side. And then just [00:07:00] helping firms navigate change is really where I feel called. Um, so that's, that's a lot of why I place myself in these rooms, why I raise my hand to go in, um, just to learn and share. Uh, it's interesting. I could have continued traveling because like right after that San Diego trip was Memorial Day, uh, week. And then right after Memorial Day week, there was another conference carbon next, uh, which is a great conference in San Diego. And then the next week is AICPA engage. And then a couple [00:07:30] weeks later is scaling new heights. Um, so you could, you could just make a career of this. And then if you really wanted to go to adjacent stats thing, you could follow him too.

Marcus Dillon: So, uh, the opportunities are limitless as far as travel for accountants. Um, so If you want to write off a trip, just go find a conference and I'm sure you can justify it. So, um, but yeah, like I would say, let's start with, um, firm growth forum was, uh, the most recent one. And [00:08:00] part of what was celebrated there was the fastest growing firms. Um, so as, as somebody who, you know, you know, we, we've grown quite a bit the last, I would say year, both organic and inorganic. We did a couple of acquisitions. This is nothing compared to some of the other people in the market. Um, and so some of them actually had friends that were on stage accepting awards, um, you know, for just growth. And there's also like this undertone [00:08:30] of some of that growth was just purchased growth. Um, like, you know, you shouldn't be on stage as a top 25 firm just because you bought eight firms last year. Right? And so, um, but yeah, like I kind of dug into this because I geek out on it. And so part of it.

Rachel Dillon: I'll pause you there. After acquiring two firms in one year, I feel like there is an award needed if you acquire eight firms in one year, whether good or bad, like just still, [00:09:00] still, maybe they need a different category. But it's not a it's not easy. It's not the easy way out, if you will.

Marcus Dillon: Well, I, I have an opinion on that too. So, um, some, some of the purchases and we'll get into the numbers first. So, you know, for the last year for 2025, um, the research showed that I did, um, there were 900 different roll up transactions [00:09:30] that occurred. And that's firms of all sizes. That's not the ones that make the Accounting Today headlines. That's small firms on corners, you know, merging together, but about a thousand transactions. That's a lot. And so those are not all licensed CPA firms either. They're accounting tax and advisory coming together. And 200 are directly linked to private equity investments in 2025. So all, you know, half of the top 30 firms have now taken PE or [00:10:00] have some type of alternative structure. And that's what was being celebrated in that room as far as that's what fuels growth, right. And scale. And part of it is once you've taken that investment or sold a portion of your business, then you're tasked with likely growing and providing that investor return on investment. So there were big firms there. There were smaller boutique firms there. There were platforms there. Um, the part that matters is that all of this continues [00:10:30] to move down market. So there are now owner operators that want to get into game to the game. They graduated from MBA program that taught them to entrepreneurship through acquisition. Maybe the professor at Harvard or the Chicago School of Booth mentioned accounting as being ripe for a roll up.

Marcus Dillon: Um, so now you have these MBAs searching for accounting firms of all sizes. Some of them are actually pooled funds, which is more private equity, um, and search funds now hunting for firms [00:11:00] of all sizes small as $2 million up to $20 million. And those are the ones that have to solve for, you know, retirements and succession events that maybe haven't been defined as well. So all that to say, there's a million different things happening. I feel like this is the year that everything moved at once because of both M&A, but also technology and how those two are colliding. So that's that's where we're at. Like there are two different paths right now that are happening within [00:11:30] a market. Um, you've got the larger more branded firms, more regional. So like the saw ends of the world. Um, different acquirers like Aprio. Um, there's a handful armandino. They're large enough to get spoken about. They're by no means the big four, but they do move the needle. They're in the headlines. And when they acquire, they fully integrate a firm. So from, from day one, their, their brand, some of the things are being adopted there. [00:12:00] There's not an in-between. It's you're coming straight in. And I call that their centralizing operations. They're centralizing a lot of, um, what would be standalone whenever you had to, had to concern yourself with that at the, at the individual level.

Marcus Dillon: So, and then there's also platforms. Um, so platforms, they're a little, they create a little bit more autonomy, uh, to a certain extent. And they provide support because [00:12:30] everyone is going to have to define what independence looks, looks like for them and their business in the future. Maybe you're 100% owned, you know, by all your own software, use your own tech stack, have created your own operating system, all that fun stuff, create your own SOPs and you are fully independent. Any of those other things kind of can flex to where you know you're independent, where it matters, but maybe you tap into knowledge somewhere else. Maybe you're in a shared technology environment. [00:13:00] Maybe you're kind of a part of something. And that's where like these platforms can come in. So autonomy still remains to a certain extent, but decentralized, um, is where those are at. Um, and so what we're seeing is you had decentralized platforms, you had some centralized platforms, kind of like the hybrid model. And then you had fully centralized firms all celebrating big wins, all celebrating organic growth and acquisitions. Um, it's just [00:13:30] an interesting time because firms of all sizes are getting inbound inquiries into. Hey, would you like to join a platform? Would you like to exercise your succession event and be done tomorrow? All of those create different valuations, different earnouts, different payouts. Um, and we've helped friends walk through what may be right for them.

Marcus Dillon: Um, but I would say knowing where you are strong, knowing what your non-negotiables are or what you should address [00:14:00] in those markets. It's funny since even since I've been back, um, some of the conversations I had out there, um, private equity, I think gets a bad rap. Like overall, um, private equity, all it is is pooled money that can be pooled investor money. It could be, you know, money from large hedge funds, uh, pension funds, whatever that are investing in a, in a business. And there are great people to work with. There are people that aren't so great to work with. And there are people that have great investment [00:14:30] thesis and culture and how they treat team members. And there are people that don't have as great and are not as fun to work with. And that's no different than hiring partners and vendors and team members and everything like that. So you definitely have to do your due diligence and discipline there. What I would say is, even since I've been back in town a week and a half, there is a big movement happening with people who have stated that they will remain fully autonomous [00:15:00] and fully decentralized in their platform. They are now moving towards centralizing part of it, and there's a variety of reasons why people are centralizing operations, why they're centralizing some of the SOPs, some of the technology. The first one is technology alone.

Marcus Dillon: So if you think about AI and if you've got a platform that let's just say it has 20 different firms on it, and those 20 different firms operate fully individually [00:15:30] and their own. They have common ownership, but they operate in silos. Those data sets between firm one through firm 20 aren't connected. So if you come across a huge technology win through AI, through automation, whatever that could be, you're having to install that in 20 different firms. And that's a little bit more painful than if you brought all that data together. It's so much more valuable when it's all together and whenever you can deploy [00:16:00] at scale those efficiencies. So, so that's part of the reason why we're starting to see centralized operations become a thing. Um, and it's not all bad. I think people that maybe were hard stance on, hey, you joined this platform and you'll remain fully autonomy, uh, fully autonomous. Um, I don't know that that like, hopefully that wasn't like part of the pitch, but you sold part of your business or you're now joining this plot. So what [00:16:30] did you expect? It's kind of my response. Um, but that's part of it. So I'm going to stop there. That was the technology coming together. There's another second part that we can get into, but um, with me stopping there, do you have any questions or you want me to unpack anything?

Rachel Dillon: Yeah. Just thinking through, um, just thinking through the, the value in having some of those things as shared services and consistent [00:17:00] and standardized processes. I think that there are things that you can't ignore once you see, um, results after let's say a year or after six months or whatever frequency you're looking at. But I would think even after one year, there's going to be staggering differences between firms that have now come together and are owned by one organization. And you always want to level up to your [00:17:30] top firm, and you want your top firm to keep doing better. So I think it would be a little naive to think you can keep doing exactly what you've always done with the same tools that you've always done them with. Um, I think that that would be a little bit naive to not realize the synergies, um, that can come from sharing some things and making some changes.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. Well, and I think about, so even if you look at, um, you know, just the, [00:18:00] the technology wins alone and think about, hey, I, I most likely rolled equity. So the way that a lot of these transactions work is there's a percentage of cash at close, a percentage of rolled equity, there may be a, a note component as part of it. There may be a earnout component. Either way, that note or Earnout is to truly hold you to the fire of what you sold to the person that it like it's going to be okay for a great amount of time. So let's say it's [00:18:30] a 60% cash, 20% note and then 20% rolled equity. In that scenario, the owners have chosen to roll equity and now are owners of this business. So to your point, wouldn't you rather have a valuable business and bring those best processes together, best data set together? So maybe you can even serve your clients better. Um, and I know that speaking to some of these platforms that are now going to a single brand, they're moving from [00:19:00] a branded house to a single brand, they can go to market and they can go serve customers or clients better than sending them a proposal with three different email addresses on it. Right. So, um, I think if you look at spring line, that's what they're doing.

Marcus Dillon: They're kind of rebranding some of their original firms under the spring line brand. Um, and none of this is like, this is all public knowledge ever since, Um, the last few weeks and, um, I think that's smart because you may have somebody in Kansas City, Missouri, that wants to work [00:19:30] with a specialist out of, you know, the specialty tax group that they bought in Indianapolis, maybe. And those people all have the same business card or email address. And so it just makes sense whenever you go to try to sell services as a business that you own in, uh, in common with others. Uh, the other, the other thing with all of this and why people are moving towards centralization aside from technology is if, if [00:20:00] it wasn't a, a permanent fund, which means long term hold 10 to 30 years, no flip, no kind of quick flip like the private equity industry is known for. Um, so private equity can usually hold a business 3 to 5 years or until their investment thesis is proven until they have reached the point of their capital partner no longer being able to fund the growth and that capital partner or that private equity fund that came in [00:20:30] originally is not the firm that's usually going to always own that business and help support that business.

Marcus Dillon: So there's a very defined thesis. And like that's just within how that fund operates and what they feel comfortable with. Um, so some of these platforms or firms that are coming together are now approaching the point where they're outgrowing their capital partner and that second capital partner as they're going out to market and they're trying to have conversations with someone [00:21:00] that can now be their new capital partner, that larger group, they don't want to own a project. They don't want to own all these 20 different brands on, you know, loosely connected platform that doesn't make sense to them or it doesn't make sense to pay a premium for that. Right. Um, and that's what the group that invested in all these is. They like. That was their investment. Like, hey, we'll go out, we'll integrate these firms maybe have branded [00:21:30] House or House of brands, whatever you want to call it. And then we're going to go increase our investment and provide return to our, you know, partners in this. And so as some of these conversations are happening, it's getting harder to show that value whenever you have a fully disconnected business and brand. And it's no different. Like we did a couple of acquisitions in 2025. If we would have chosen to leave those acquisitions on their own tech stack, on their own email addresses, it [00:22:00] would have been a nightmare.

Marcus Dillon: So like you compound that with millions of dollars of revenue, dozens, hundreds of team members, clients, all that fun stuff. And it's the situation that that some of these groups are in. And when I looked at that stage and there's different people that are doing different things. Some of the ones being celebrated the most are very much decentralized like group, but they're going to have to figure it out if they're ever going to exit. Now, [00:22:30] some of the decentralized, fully autonomy proven groups are long term hold family office money, you know, investments of 10 to 30 years, and there's no rush to integrate. But now that we know, like with the technology wins that are coming in, some of these other factors at play, centralizing operations is going to be a very real thing. So that's somewhat of what's happening. Um, in the market. I would say there's other, there's other things that are [00:23:00] happening. So rebrands like this is the season to rebrand, like create, uh, professional alliance there. Um, they just rebranded this week to current and like that was if you're in Crete, you probably knew about that because they had an event about it, but that's another platform that's coming together more under a single, a single brand, or at least replacing the Creek name.

Marcus Dillon: Crete's biggest investor I think is thrive, which also is open AI and the Kushner Brothers out of New York and all that fun political stuff that happens up there, but [00:23:30] thrive and open. Ai. So they have installed and built software only for the firms that are on that platform. Um, and it's been said it's not going to be available on the secondary market. So whenever you have big technology companies like open AI or anthropic, partnering with firms and creating proprietary software, that's not going to be available in the open market, you have to question like, okay, who's going to win the technology battle at the end of the day? So like, that's also some of the concern [00:24:00] that's just swirling around because that's going to impact firms of all sizes, because you may not take an investment and become a part of the platform or anything like that, but you will start competing with those firms regardless of size, because now those firms are pushing into the 2 million, $1 million firms. Uh, who who we support and who we are. So fun times there. Um, that's, that's kind of what I learned at the most recent and just [00:24:30] paying attention to what I pay attention to. And if people want to geek out on this stuff and have discussions, I'm all ears.

Rachel Dillon: Yeah, absolutely. You started moving in towards the tech conversation. So I think that's a good next topic to hit. And so what are you seeing because you were in different parts of the country with different groups of people and different groups of peers. Let's go through what are people [00:25:00] talking about and what are people actually doing. So let's hit both.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah, I would say like the technology companies that are now coming out, um, that have AI agent components. There's a new one every day, and some of our friends, like Kenji, is a friend and he's at one of them based out in New York. And so it's just it's hard to keep up with between accrual basis pilots come in, you know, it's like everybody's coming out with something. Uh, and also the [00:25:30] platforms alone are coming out with things like canopy practice management has released Co-work with inside Canopy. Uh, carbon is doing, you know, additional AI built within, within carbon QuickBooks, Intuit, Intuit intelligence is being released within platform there. And so everything that we open up on a daily basis has some form of AI or agent now being built into it. And that's just going to make, um, make our job harder to standardize [00:26:00] things unless you use a third party standardized agent, like from Claude or ChatGPT or copilot, you know, all of these different third party applications. And our software partners don't love it when I say that, but I was having a conversation with someone at one of these platforms and they were like, well, hey, at this price point, we'll allow you so many credits or tokens of AI usage within platform. And, and I was [00:26:30] like, that's great for like a solopreneur or very small firm. But once you have a person who has a director of technology in AI, and his part of his role is to manage all the software across different aspects of the practice.

Marcus Dillon: You're telling me that he now has to log into every software and make sure that token usage is the correct, and reconcile that and make sure we're at the right level and that this one team member over here wasn't doing stupid experiments and using up all the tokens. And it's like the software [00:27:00] companies just don't think about application like that. So and that's going to be a very real thing that firm owners need to get their hands on is how much of a budget for these tokens and experimentation on the AI front? Are you really willing to spend what we have done at eBay? So we we use copilot deployed across the team right now because that's within our Microsoft bubble. Uh, there are a select handful of us that also have Claude, um, Claude team or Claude Enterprise. I can't remember [00:27:30] which what the name of it is. Uh, but the higher level. Claude to test and build things in. And then Angel will actually take what is built, go from it up in copilot. That's the current policy today. And so that's kind of how we control, uh, our AI spend within experiments. Um, if someone was really wanting to learn and wanting to experiment on the team, we wouldn't like, we would put them in a place where they could, we would not say no to that, but we're trying to control for [00:28:00] somebody that's just asking a lot of questions in like the the bill is running, you know, um, in the background.

Marcus Dillon: So all that to say, there is a ton of money going into that. And it's crazy because even at conferences, they things are shown, but what it can actually do is a completely different story, both good and bad. So part of what is being shown is like theory or, um, this is what we're building and it's not perfect yet, but we're in alpha beta, whatever [00:28:30] phase of it and we're hoping that it gets better. Um, the other scary part is there's stuff that we don't even know about, um, that's happening. And some of it goes back to like that proprietary software that's now within the hands of certain people that is being tested. And then it's 97% accuracy on the tech side, and it's saved hundreds of hours across firms. And it will be available for release within the next few months. So those are the different things to pay attention to. So it's [00:29:00] even a harder job right now of understanding what's real, what's conceptual? What's just a great video that somebody put together, or what is actually a true demo that is being useful?

Rachel Dillon: Yeah. Just as you're talking, it makes me think about the kind of AI and human balance as far as our workforce. And I think for us, what has been, um, [00:29:30] kind of a catalyst for us to look at technology automation. And then even now more AI agents is when we have a disruption of some sort. So when we have either a big change in, let's say, tax law, or we have a big change in team where somebody is leaving or, um, something like that, that's when we typically will reevaluate, get real serious [00:30:00] about evaluating what opportunities exist. And so it's never something where it's like, oh, we would like to just wipe out our whole team. Um, the team is really important to all of us. And as, as a whole team, like we are important to each other across our team, but also when we have a disruption and a change, that's typically when we get real serious about looking at what would this look like in our firm, not just [00:30:30] what does this look like and what are the possibilities out beyond us, but would we actually be able to solve for a position with this new technology? And so I think that that's important to remember of not kind of closing your mind off to I'm not firing any of my team. All of my team is staying in place. So I don't we're not going this route. We're not trying to replace people at our firm. I think the thing is, is to be [00:31:00] Real aware and real. Ready to start. Um, especially experimenting with it so that when you do have a change in the firm, you can immediately solve for it and not try to figure it out when it's kind of too late.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. Um, to your point, like, I think the, the best time for firms to really get serious about is when either someone has left the firm or growth is, is so overwhelming and you can't hire for a role that you truly have to figure out the technology to, [00:31:30] to put in place. Um, more than likely it's already there. Um, so a few, a few other like just being in the room, um, conversations that I had as of today, like summer of 2026 and the costs that go into agents and building it out and doing it the right way. Uh, a lot of that still falls on the, the user. There is no off the shelf product to deploy across, um, across firms because every firm looks a little bit different. So the cost right now. Um [00:32:00] global talent, however you source that is still probably a more, um, a more cost effective option than agents today, but it's not always going to be that way. So I think that's where we've talked about, hey, um, this technology will likely take on the global talent workforce first. Um, before it would take over our onshore, you know, domestic team members, um, roles. [00:32:30] So, and that's just something to think about as either a person leaves or you have growth, like, do you really need to employ that one more person, whether it is globally or domestic. So just a few different conversations that that have been happening there.

Marcus Dillon: Um, I think the other, the other piece is, you know, just in the rooms and it's no like, it's no secret we work with both Intuit and ADP. Um, fortunate to have friends there and be on their councils. [00:33:00] Uh, there's some pretty big shifts there happening, uh, within, within platform on the Intuit side, obviously, uh, QuickBooks online accounting, QBO. A. Um, that platform is shifting, uh, in sunsets at the end of this year, a lot of other sunsets are happening this year with classic reports. Uh, not no longer being an option. Everything move into modern, just platform shifts that started last year. Um, part of all of that was to rebuild on a platform that [00:33:30] allows for agents and for more automations to be a part of it. It's, it's no different than why would you move from QuickBooks desktop to QuickBooks online? It's the conversation that we've been having, but now these platform shifts happen in the background to your disapproval or your client's disapproval. We had a client reach out this week. He wasn't happy about it, but something happened was pushed to him. An update was pushed to him through into it and it changed how he invoiced [00:34:00] and collected payments. Right. And so all of a sudden, his customers were getting notification of a new way to pay, and they were paying it that way. And it was thrown off his system. And he gets, you know, just who do you get angry at? And you get angry with the person who maintains the the software and that's the accountant.

Marcus Dillon: So, uh, we had to talk that client off the ledge and say, hey, this is, this is just where technology is today, right? And they're going to push through automatic updates [00:34:30] that we can't control. And then their response is, how do you turn this off? And it's you cannot turn it off, right? It's the world that we live in. So I doubt that client's going to be opting in to AI agents taking over our role anytime soon. Um, he's probably just going back to green sheets and, uh, pencil and paper. So, but yeah, stuff like that is happening in the background. Um, you know, the other piece that's happening over the summer months is price increases. Uh, so price [00:35:00] increases for the software that you use and love or don't love is all happening. And, um, you know, whether it's the tax software where they love to hit you right after tax season, they love to send you the, uh, hey, we know you're going to be in it for one more year. Here's the price increase on this software. That hasn't changed in ten years and still looks the same and is is not the best. So, but um, it now costs more. Congratulations. So those come out and then also the, uh, the monthly [00:35:30] subscriptions that you pay for on a, on a ongoing basis.

Marcus Dillon: So summer is also a great time to review your, uh, monthly spend on software. And if you have a technology that you turned on to experiment with, or you only have one client on it, let's move that one client, turn off that technology. Um, we've done that with some of the bill pay software's. Uh, we're a really big fan of ramp right now and how it solves for a lot of different things for clients. So if, uh, [00:36:00] if there was a single solution provider out there that we were paying for in a client can come off of it. We're really evaluating and doing that during the summer months, whenever it's a little bit easier to have those conversions happen. So I would highly encourage that to also be on your radar for improvement season. But yeah, I would say that all of all of this has to happen proactively. Um, you may feel like that client and how all of this is happening regardless of, of your role in it. [00:36:30] And you can be a very reactive, uh, player in this market, or you can actually be proactive. And the best way to be proactive is with your dollars. And what are you going to spend on? Who are you going to do business with? And I think partner vendor partner relationships are more critical than ever. And, um, it's just that's where I would leave that conversation.

Rachel Dillon: Yeah. So, um, anything else? We've hit growth and [00:37:00] M&A, we've hit technology. We've talked about, um, like our vendor platform. Yeah. Basically just increases, right. There will be some additional service there, but mostly just price increases across the board. Um, any other things that were highlighted while you were out?

Marcus Dillon: Uh, so it's interesting. Um, we were just with, uh, collective firms in Mexico for [00:37:30] recharge and I started traveling and then we're in the season right now of preparing for gather, which is our event in October in, uh, in grapevine hotel VIN not sure of when this drops, if there will still be any tickets remaining. Um, but we open it up to non collective members here pretty soon that that agenda is being shaped by some of what we're hearing, but also by what our DBA and collective teams are working on and helping [00:38:00] other firms through. When I was at the conference in San Diego, I was getting coffee. I swear at these conferences I drink coffee all day long and I. I still sleep at night, so it's it's okay. But I was getting coffee kind of midday and these two ladies came up and they were having a conversation and they were like, which one? Which session did you go into? And she was like, I went into one. And they didn't talk anything about M&A or AI. It was so refreshing. And I'm like, so, so [00:38:30] part of that, like this, this conversation already, we're pretty heavy on M&A and AI.

Marcus Dillon: Um, there are a ton of other things that need focus in your business. And I would say right now as some of these conferences, the things that stand out are the M and A and AI it's just good business. You know, things that we all need to hear all the time and, and implement. Um, so it's really funny that comment that she said stuck with me because [00:39:00] like part of the reason, guilty as charged that I went to the conference was to learn more about the M&A market where we're at. Um, in today's world. And then also like just with the AI and like the agents, because everything, you know, it seems to be moving that way. But it's funny, like the agenda for, uh, for, for gather is put together and even stepping back from that agenda, like you and I, we were like, this feels [00:39:30] really heavy. Ai. And we had to make some changes to it to like, you could, you could stick AI in every session and it would be okay in today's world. And so we had to be very intentional about, the areas that we chose?

Rachel Dillon: Yeah. For sure. Um, do you, do you want me to share a little bit about what will be on that agenda?

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. I mean, hopefully it doesn't change too much. Um, you know, hopefully there's tickets that still exist if [00:40:00] people do want to go. Um, but yeah, I think just given where we're at and like what we're coming off of, I think knowing that that helped shape some of the agenda for that event would be good.

Rachel Dillon: Yeah, yeah. For sure. Um, just a really big overview and kind of the overall flow of what that agenda will look like. Um, we'll start out with kind of the future and what we should be thinking about. Um, definitely moving through performance in the aspect of [00:40:30] results. So we always share the KPIs from the firms that are in the room or firms that are members of collective. These are shared anonymously, but just allow us to get a better picture of who we're with for the next couple of days, and then also a benchmark of how we're performing, and are we moving in the direction that we're trying to go? We will have AI alignment and AI capability sessions for [00:41:00] sure. Um, day two, we will be looking at people and leadership decisions, um, looking at client service and technology priorities and firm roadmaps. So there will be, um, in addition to technology and innovation, there will be a lot of people and leadership elements, uh, weaved in the conference is both for firm owner and partners, as well as like team members who are [00:41:30] just natural leaders or named leaders within the firm, uh, to be there. And so there will be sessions that are relevant to both types of attendees. So excited about that intimate gathering. Uh, no more than 120 people in the room. Uh, we break out for the sessions that are partner or team member specific. And so just a really great place to get to know other peers that are similar, [00:42:00] you know, to where you might be, and also to get to meet people who might be a little bit ahead of where you are and learn from what they've done.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. I think, you know, it's, it's so refreshing to go to these events because, uh, what gets lost in a lot of the conferences are just back to back session after session, topic after topic, heavy topic after heavy topic. And we [00:42:30] have essentially just as hosts, like just set the table for good conversations to happen. So I love the fact where it'll be a presentation followed by a panel followed by roundtable work. Um, for example, and there's round tables and peers from all over the country, um, that can weigh in and it's, it's cool to be a part of something that's not, um, not confrontational. There's really, it's [00:43:00] just open and sharing. And ultimately these, these friends care a lot about one another and are always willing to invite new ones in. So if you haven't been to one of our events, we would highly, highly recommend it and are inviting you now, um, to join us in October. So that's kind of where, where things are at. I know that there's a lot of other stuff moving both at DBA collective personally. Um, you know, in our lives, everywhere around us. [00:43:30] And I would just, I would encourage, you know, um, the listeners, I would encourage, you know, others that have the ability to see what what you are wanting to accomplish and spend time, um, on that during this improvement season with the remaining months that we have.

Marcus Dillon: There's still plenty of time to initiate improvement. But if you can see where you're at today, take an assessment, really prioritize what [00:44:00] areas are going to move the needle the most, and then put into place things that can help hold you accountable to improvement. I know that that's been the most useful in my career and in my, uh, leadership and that that's ultimately why we believe so much in streamlined OS. And so it's been great to see firms taking assessments, uh, revealing their top three areas dropping in KPIs, having conversations [00:44:30] within their leadership teams, having conversations within their mastermind groups, and having conversations with their advisors to keep moving forward. So that's probably the only other thing that I would add at this point. I mean, if you spend all of your weeks traveling and go to conferences and councils and just different trips like that over this window, which we call improvement season. I hope that you also schedule some time to actually like, [00:45:00] think about and remember what you heard and what you learned and try to implement some of it. But maybe you're like me and maybe you choose to stay home and work on some things that will really matter, um, over this next few weeks.

Rachel Dillon: Yeah. I think that's a good advice for anyone who might be hearing it. And so if you would like to learn more about, gather about streamlined OS, about what accountability [00:45:30] within collective by DBA, either through one on one advisory or through mastermind groups, where you can meet monthly with a group of peers in the accounting industry, visit collective dot cpa. That's the best place you go there. You'll be able to find all of that. If you'd like to have a conversation with myself, happy to do that as well. And you can schedule a time straight from the website. So we look forward to talking with you, hoping to see you sometime in the future. [00:46:00] And thanks, Marcus, for sharing what you've been learning.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah, happy to do it. Thanks for leading the conversation.

Rachel Dillon: Thanks for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed the conversation and want to learn more, be sure to visit collective CPA. You can schedule a meeting directly with me, Rachel by clicking on the Contact Us page. Be sure to subscribe, like, and share so you don't miss any future episodes. We look forward to connecting with you soon.